Astronomy 2021A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Apodicticity, Homo Sapiens, Ordovician
2 May 2018
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Department
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Professor
First form of life - stromatolites (3.5 billion years back)
• They turned CO to O2 atmosphere
Time before present
• Ordovician
o Late Ordovician (2nd highest extinction)
• Silurian
• Devonian
o Late Devonian (lowest spike, 5th)
• Carboniferous
• Permian
o End Permian (very high, 1st)
• Triassic
o Late Triassic (4th)
• Jurassic
• Cretaceous
o K-T (3rd)
• Tertiary
• Quaternary
I know cosmos
I - alive? - but what is life?
I - homo sapiens?
I - human?
I - just a material body/brain interacting with objects in environment
I - a transcendental mind with personality, identity, consciousness, free will, intelligence?
I - Intelligent?
Turn to psychic background of ourselves
Lecture Question 04-01
What is life?
C. Both a and b.
a. An organismic state characterized by capacity for metabolism, growth, reaction to stimuli
and reproduction (more subtle note -could be interpreted as limited to asexual
reproduction)
+ Follows the scientific method from observation to model
+ Falsifiable due to new species and microbial world [virus?]
• Descriptive and not functional (e.g., anatomy vs. physiology)
• Pre-supress materialism (what about vis vitalis, soul, intelligence, character, consciousness,
identify)
• Entries not disjutive, does’t add up to athig that is oplete, e.g., ailit to adapt
(epigenetics)
• Entries not apodictic e.g., man after vasectomy, mule (cross of horse and donkey, can not
have offspring, dead or alive? Clearly it is alive, not everything has to be able to do all four
things at once)
b. The sequence of mental, physical processes that make up the existence of an individual
+ Follows the scientific method from self-observation to model
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+ Falsifiable e.g., through study of memory-loss patients
• Pre-supposes idealism
+ Functional (even hinting towards meaning of individual life)
• Limited to vertebrates or even more narrowly, humans (Chordarte: Rat vs. Nonchordate: Aplysia)
The sequence of physical and mental experiences that make up the existence of an individual
Unfortunately, defining life is surprisingly difficult, even when we consider only life on earth
• Non-scientific, purely speculation-based "want to include what we don’t kno, so leae ide open"
-> pseudoscience.
• Biased by ulterior motives (astrobiology funding)
• Apodictic case = sine qua non condition
• Assertoric/assertive case
Paracelsus (1493-1541)
• Pre-formation
• Homunculus seen inside of sperm
Transcendental Idealism (similar to solipsism) - Immanuel Kent (1724-1904)
• Idealism holds that ultimate reality lies in the realm of transcending objects and phenomena. I.e.,
that the essential nature of reality lies in consciousness and reason. It holds therefore that only
mental states or entities are knowable.
• Transcendental in Kantian philosophy refers to that which lies beyond all possible experience.
Pre-humans are dissimilar from other creatures of the time period (cave bear) by using symbols for
representation.
In quantum mechanics - causality does not apply, but we base our reality on the model of causality.
• If we were to find some other being in space we would not be able to call it life comparatively to
what we know on earth.
Better approach: Identify functional unit of interest
• Immanent universe -> planetary system
• Immanent Life -> Cell
Cell is functional unit of plant life (1837)
• Mattias von Schleiden (1804-1881)
Cell is functional unit of animal life (very soon following)
• Theodor Schwann (1810-1882)
Life comes from life (1857)
• Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902)
• Progressive in parliament
• Challenged to a duel - chose salmonella and E.coli as weapon
Eukaryotic Cell (e.g., animal cell)
• We have yet to find out what all the functions are (biochemistry)
• Bacteria : least genes needed, 250. 80 are shared among all of them.
• All of life shares locus gene
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
First form of life - stromatolites (3. 5 billion years back: they turned co to o2 atmosphere. Time before present: ordovician, late ordovician (2nd highest extinction) Silurian: devonian, late devonian (lowest spike, 5th, carboniferous, permian, end permian (very high, 1st, triassic, late triassic (4th) What is life: both a and b, an organismic state characterized by capacity for metabolism, growth, reaction to stimuli and reproduction (more subtle note -could be interpreted as limited to asexual reproduction) + follows the scientific method from observation to model. Clearly it is alive, not everything has to be able to do all four things at once: the sequence of mental, physical processes that make up the existence of an individual. + follows the scientific method from self-observation to model. + falsifiable e. g. , through study of memory-loss patients: pre-supposes idealism. + functional (even hinting towards meaning of individual life) Limited to vertebrates or even more narrowly, humans (chordarte: rat vs. nonchordate: aplysia)
